Grand Challenges

SCOTUS puts regulation of power plant emissions on hold

A March 12, 2015 photo shows the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

Mandel Ngan/ AFP/ Getty Images

Cara Horowitz, of UCLA School of Law and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, joins KPCC’s Take Two to discuss the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 split decision to put regulation of power plant emissions on hold. The court’s decision puts a temporary halt on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan while it considers legal challenges from 29 states and energy industry groups.

Political drama at the California Coastal Commission

Charles Lester, Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission

LA Times

Sean Hecht (UCLA School of Law and Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment) discusses the upcoming California Coastal Commission meeting, detailing potential impacts of decisions made by the commission.

Uphill battle for California’s native plant species

2.9.16_UphillBattleForCaliforniasNative California’s ecosystems are being pulled apart in an era of climate change, according to the largest-ever empirical study of how different plant species are moving. Jon Christensen (Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and department of History) led the study.

Climate change is leaving native plants behind

A manzanita specimen from 1936 housed at the University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of California, Berkeley.

John Upton/Climate Central

Jon Christensen of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the department of History warns that native plants are struggling to keep up with changes around them as pollution from fuel burning and deforestation continues to warm the planet.

Source: Climate change is leaving native plants behind Climate Central, 8 Feb. 2016

Additional coverage about Jon Christenson’s work studying native plants reacting to climate change:

Ecosystems pulling apart as some plants shift habitats, possibly adapting to climate change UCLA Newsroom, 8 Feb. 2016

Sustainable LA

UCLA expertise out at Porter Ranch

Residents in Porter Ranch have been smelling natural gas since at least October 2015.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News

While health officials and Southern California Gas Co. executives have maintained that Porter Ranch residents’ symptoms were the effects of smelling odorants, experts like UCLA’s Professor and Chair Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Fielding School of Public Health, Michael Jerrett, are raising other possibilities. Jerrett has been frequently on hand to lend his expertise and a critical eye to the recent gas leaks.

Source: What caused nosebleeds in Porter Ranch? New questions emerge Los Angeles Daily News, 8 Feb. 2016

Additional coverage about Michael Jerrett’s response to the Porter Ranch gas leak:

Families Near The Huge Gas Leak Wonder: Is Home A Safe Place To Be? NPR, 10 Feb. 2016

Porter Ranch gas leak: How officials are testing the air KPCC, 3 Feb. 2016

California gas company promises action to capture some of leaking methane The Guardian, 11 Jan. 2016

Porter Ranch: Long term health risks of gas leak unknown KPCC, 3 Oct. 2015